| Micky Moody | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Michael Joseph Moody |
| Born | 30 August 1950 Middlesbrough, Cleveland, England |
| Genres | Rock, hard rock, heavy metal blues-rock, blues, acoustic |
| Occupations | Musician, singer-songwriter, author |
| Instruments | Guitar, vocals, mandolin |
| Associated acts | Juicy Lucy, Snafu, Whitesnake, The Moody Marsden Band, The Snakes, The Company of Snakes, M3 Classic Whitesnake, Micky Moody Band |
| Website | Official website |
| Notable instruments | |
| Gibson Les Paul, Gibson ES335 | |
Michael Joseph "Micky" Moody (born 30 August 1950) is an English guitarist, and a former member of the rock bands Juicy Lucy and Whitesnake. He was also a founder-member of Snafu. Together with his former Whitesnake colleague Bernie Marsden he founded the Moody Marsden Band, and later, The Snakes. Along with Marsden and ex-Whitesnake bassist, Neil Murray, he formed Company of Snakes and M3 Classic Whitesnake with which they mainly performed early Whitesnake songs. From 2010 he has been working with Murray, guitarist Laurie Wisefield, drummer Harry James, singer Chris Ousey and keyboard player Michael Bramwell in Monsters of British Rock which has morphed into Snakecharmer with Adam Wakeman on keyboards.
Besides this, Moody has also toured with Roger Chapman, Frankie Miller and Chris Farlowe. He has also worked alongside the likes of Eric Clapton, Alvin Lee, Mick Taylor, Bruce Dickinson, Sam Brown, Gary Brooker, Suggs, Dennis Locorriere, Paul Jones, PP Arnold, James Hunter, Rick Wakeman, Jon Lord, Newton Faulkner and Uriah Heep. For TV he has also accompanied such stars as Meat Loaf, Boy George, Elkie Brooks, Nona Hendryx, Ben E. King and one of his early guitar heroes, Duane Eddy. Since 2000 he has released several solo albums: I Eat Them For Breakfast (2000), Don't Blame Me (2006), Acoustic Journeyman (2007) and Electric Journeyman (2009).[1] A versatile guitarist, Moody has been an active session musician and his own website lists over 100 albums to which he has contributed musically. 2006 saw the release of the autobiographical Playing With Trumpets - A Rock 'n' Roll Apprenticeship, a memoir about his early days on the music scene.[2] His library music has been featured on such TV programmes as Waking the Dead, Bo Selecta, America's Next Top Model, How To Look Good Naked, Top Gear, Mad Men and Wife Swap USA.
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While still at school in Middlesbrough and regularly attending private guitar lessons, Moody formed a band named The RoadRunners with several other local boys including Paul Rodgers (later to form Free and Bad Company), and later, Bruce Thomas, who would eventually play bass with Elvis Costello and the Attractions. The band were kept busy performing a range of covers in local halls and clubs. By 1967 they had developed and outgrown the local music scene so they took the decision to turn professional, change their name to the Wildflowers, and move to London. They had some success and undertook some touring, but relationships within the band frayed and they eventually split without ever releasing any recordings. Moody returned home to Middlesbrough where for a while he widened his musical horizons by taking classical guitar lessons. He also became increasingly interested in slide guitar techniques (a style he would later be closely associated with). While living in Middlesbrough he was asked by local singer and entrepreneur, John McCoy, to form a group which became Tramline. A deal for two albums was signed with Island Records, but by the time the second album was released the band had already split and gone their separate ways. At this point Moody joined Lucas and the Mike Cotton Sound who, as well as proving to be a highly-polished Soul band, also acted as Gene Pitney's backing band for his UK tours as well as backing others, such as Paul Jones.[3][4]
In 1970 he joined the recently re-patriated Zoot Money before replacing Neil Hubbard in Juicy Lucy. As a member of Juicy Lucy, he recorded three albums and toured extensively before the group disbanded. After the band split, Micky co-founded Snafu which combined his funk-rock guitar style with some down-home stateside grooves. The band recorded three albums - SNAFU, Situation Normal, and All Funked Up. They also appeared on a John Peel session, the Old Grey Whistle Test and Supersonic and toured extensively before the individual members headed off to pursue different ventures. Moody undertook occasional work as a session player before, during and after Snafu, most notably for Graham Bonnett. He also contributed to one track on City to City by Gerry Rafferty. Moody performed as an original member of Status Quo drummer John Coghlan's Diesel Band, then recorded an album with the band's tour manager and lyricist, Bob Young. The result was Young & Moody. He then toured with Frankie Miller and guested with Hinkley's Heroes before hooking up with another friend from the North East, David Coverdale. Micky had known Coverdale from the local music scene in the Middlesbrough area in the late sixties, but by this point Coverdale had been fronting Deep Purple and was looking to undertake a solo venture. He invited Moody to assist and the result was the album White Snake released in 1977 which was followed by a second album Northwinds in 1978. Moody shared writing credits on four of the nine songs on Whitesnake (including the title track) and three of the eight songs featured on Northwinds. With the demise of Deep Purple MkIV, Coverdale and Moody joined forces with Bernie Marsden, Neil Murray, Dave 'Duck' Dowle and keyboardist Brian Johnston (replaced after a few months by Pete Solley) to form a band that took its name Whitesnake from the title of Coverdale's first solo album. In 1978 they recorded the EP Snakebite followed by two Studio albums: Trouble (also in 1978) and Lovehunter (1979) which were recorded by a modified line up with Jon Lord on keyboards. Moody is credited with co-writing four of the ten tracks on Trouble, and was sole author of a fifth (the lively instrumental, Belgian Tom's Hat Trick). He contributed to three of the ten songs on Lovehunter, most notably the title track. While working with Whitesnake he found time to play slide guitar on several tracks on Roger Chapman's debut solo album, Chappo.
Moody contributed slide guitar to three tracks on Ex-Lindisfarne Ray Jackson's solo debut In the Night released in 1980. By this point Whitesnake now featured Ian Paice from Deep Purple on drums, who had been brought into the group to replace Dowle. In 1980 this line up released the album Ready an' Willing, which spawned two UK single hits in the form of Fool for your Loving and the album title track; Moody co-wrote both tracks. The band also released the double album Live...in the Heart of the City in that year. He also found time to write and record two singles with Bob Young. In 1981 Graham Bonnet released his album Line-Up which featured Moody playing guitar on all tracks and also featured three songs written by Moody in partnership with Bob Young. Micky maintained a busy schedule with Whitesnake and the band released the album Come an' Get It that year. Relationships within the band were beginning to sour and Moody's guitar partner Bernie Marsden left prior to the final completion of the next album Saints and Sinners. Moody himself followed soon after. The band was put on hold for much of 1982 and Moody undertook some session work, for the likes of Sheena Easton. By late 1982 Whitesnake were back, (with Mel Galley replacing Marsden), and a re-juvinated Moody joining Galley on the album's backing vocal sessions. Going into 1983, Coverdale replaced Ian Paice and Neil Murray with Cozy Powell and Colin Hodgkinson. However Micky was not particularly happy with the direction the new band was taking and felt increasingly sidelined by Coverdale.[5] Despite the deteriorating situation within Whitesnake, Moody persevered with recording the Slide It In album (which he describes as an 'unhappy experience' ) before quitting the band in 1983 at the end of a tour.[1] Moody went back to session work with a series of artists including Mike Oldfield, Gary Glitter, Mike d'Abo, and Roger Chapman as well as selected TV work. He toured with Chris Farlowe and also worked with ex-Meal Ticket singer Willy Finlayson and his band the Hurters. Taking a wry, yet witty view on some of the people and experiences they'd encountered over the years, he got together with Bob Young to write a book on musician's humour, the acclaimed Language Of Rock And Roll. He also put together the first version of the Micky Moody Band featuring ex-Taste bassist Charlie McCracken and drummer Chris Hunt. Towards the end of the decade he and Bernie Marsden played selected venues with the their own Moody Marsden Band.
During the early part of the 1990s, Moody toured extensively with Roger Chapman before re-uniting on a more permanent basis with his erstwhile Whitesnake guitarist-in-crime, Bernie Marsden, to tour and record with the Moody Marsden Band, concentrating mostly on the British and western European markets. Featured in various line-ups were drummers Zak Starkey, Terry Williams, John Trotter, Henry Spinetti and Dave Dowle; bass players Jaz Lochrie, Pete Stroud, Steve Price, Neil Murray and David Levy, and keyboard players Don Ariey and Josh Phillips. Guests in the studio included harmonica player Mark Feltham, keyboard player Volker 'Wolfman' Kunschner, brass players Nick Pentelow, Frank Mead and Martin Drover, and backing singers Monica Reed-Price and Mick Lister. The Moody Marsden Band recorded two live albums, Never Turn Our Back On the Blues and Live In Hell and a studio set, Real Faith. In 1996, Moody toured the USA as part of the Best of British Blues tour which also featured Alvin Lee, Eric Burdon, Aynsley Dunbar, Boz Burrell and Tim Hinkley. The following year, Moody and Marsden teamed up with Norwegian rockers Jorn Lande, Willy Bendickson and Sid Ringsby to form The Snakes, a band that specialised in re-producing the sounds of the original Whitesnake. Don Airey would often be brought in to augment them on keyboards. The band recorded two albums, Once Bitten and Live in Europe before making way for The Company of Snakes, which featured in its line up former Bad Company vocalist Robert Hart, original Whitesnake bass player Neil Murray and ex-Manfred Mann's Earth Band drummer John Lingwood. Hart was eventually replaced by ex-Snakes in Paradise frontman Steffan Berggren, and the band released two albums, Burst the Bubble and a live set, Here They Go Again.
In 2000, Micky wrote and produced library music prior to the release of his first official solo album, I Eat Them For Breakfast. Whilst continuing to perform with Company Of Snakes and take on occasional session work, Moody joined his former Juicy Lucy bandmate Paul Williams[6] to arrange and record a selection of classic Chicago blues tracks in a mostly 'unplugged' fashion; the result was Smokestacks, Broomdusters and Hoochie Coochie Men. He also started to play occasional gigs in a duo format with bluesman Papa George, and continues to do so. The next 'Snake' metamorphosis was into M3 Classic Whitesnake, and although ex-Black Sabbath singer Tony Martin was in the starting line-up, Stefan Berggren was soon back in the frontman's spot. M3 released a live CD featuring Martin, and a live DVD featuring Berggren with a guest appearance from former Richie Blackmore and Yngwie Malmsteen frontman Doogie White. Also featured in this line-up were ex-Paul Rodgers Band, Go West and Tears for Fears drummer Jimmy Copley and keyboard player Mark Stanway from Magnum.
Around this time, Moody played on the album Nah Aufnahme by German superstar Westernhagen, which eventually topped the national charts. 2006 saw the release of Moody's self-produced solo album Don't Blame Me in tandem with the autobiographical Playing with Trumpets - A Rock 'n' Roll Apprenticeship, the latter recounting his early days in the music business, mostly in the company of Paul Rodgers. M3 broke up later that year, after which Moody performed more shows with Roger Chapman plus selected dates with a line-up of the Micky Moody Band that featured his eldest son Micky Moody Jr. on drums. In 2008 he toured Japan as special guest of Jimmy Copley and Japanese guitar legend Char. Also featured was ex-Herbie Hancock bassist Paul Jackson and keyboard wizard Yoshinobu Kojima. The shows were recorded and released on DVD as Jimmy Copley & Char: Special Session. To celebrate his love of instrumental music, Micky wrote and produced Acoustic Journeyman (2007) and Electric Journeyman (2009).
In 2011, Moody co-wrote library music for both Warner/Chapell and Universal before forming Snakecharmer with Neil Murray, also formerly of Whitesnake and The Company of Snakes.